This fonds consists of bulletins (1982-2019), newsletters (1982), minutes (1976-2000), annual reports (1956-1996) and constitution([197-]) The records pertain to the development of the Mennonite congregation at Aberdeen, Saskatchewan and they documents the leaders and participants of this congregation.
Aberdeen Mennonite Church (Aberdeen, Saskatchewan)
This fonds consists primarily of correspondence, official negotiations, and memos of the Studienkommission (1920-1921), the study commission sent to North America by Mennonites in Russia to investigate immigration possibilities; and of the Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization (1922-1926), founded to facilitate the immigration. There is extensive correspondence between Friesen and David Toews, Benjamin H. Unruh, Benjamin B. Janz, Peter H. Unruh, and other Mennonite leaders.
Several files deal with the case of "the 62", sixty two young male Mennonite refugees who left Russia for the United States via Constantinople in the early 1920s.
Some genealogical material for Russian Mennonite emigrants for the 1920s can be found here. The "notebooks" folder includes Friesen's passport and diaries.
This fonds consists of transcribed and translated letters created by Ed Falk with the help of Peter Wiebe and his son Bruce Wiebe, letters originally written to Dr. Abraham B. Hiebert and his family by family and friends in Russia, United States, and Canada. Some letters are general correspondence, others are letters requesting medical assistance, or invitations to funerals. The letters show the connection of family members in various countries, the importance of doctors, and current events in the Mennonite communities. Includes footnotes and appendices.
This fonds consists of educational materials created and used by Abram P. Bueckert as well as a large scale composite photograph that includes Bueckert when he served in one of the Mennonite alternative service forestry camp.
This fonds consists of research files and primary material collected by Abraham D. Stoesz for the purpose of publishing a Stoesz book. There are letters, documents inherited from his father and other ancestors, birth and marriage certificates, citizenship records, photographs and other family records. In addition to the Stoesz family materials, there is also some Harder genealogical information including excerpts from a Jacob Harder (1789-1857) diary.
This fonds consists of a ledger and some loose papers. The ledger includes lists of sermons preached by Abraham Doerksen and lists of baptisms. The loose papers include correspondence, baptismal records, church meetings and obituaries. The documents from the Christian Heritage Library include a book entitled "The Family Tree of Abraham Doerksen, Regina Hoeppner and Descendants", as well as writings, sermons and his certificate of baptism which exempted him from military service in World War I.
This fonds includes personal letters written by friends and family as well as professional letters. The majority of letters from family and friends were written in gothic script German. Some of these letters have been transcribed by someone other than A.K. Friesen into Latin script German. When A.K. Friesen was a teacher he received letters from the Department of Education and Dominion School Supply. Then when A.K. transitioned to working for Monarch Lumber Company he received letters from The Star Manufacturing Co. Limited. Most of the letters were written to A.K. Friesen, however, there are a few letters written to other people.
Also included is a free sample of Chamberlain's Stomach and Liver tablets (Volume 6486.7).
This fonds consists of two sections of letters which Jacob and Sara Braun received from the Friesen family. The first section dated 1921 to 1938 were received from the Friesen family in Ogus Tobe, Crimea, first while living in Tiegenhagen (Ukraine) and then after 1925 while living at Ste. Elizabeth, Manitoba. The second section dated 1956 to 1982 are letters written mainly by Helene Dueck, Renate Dueck, Peter Friesen and Anna Wall in the Soviet Union to Jacob and Sara Braun in Manitoba. The letters are arranged chronologically by year. The letters provide a view of how one immigrant family to Canada remained in contact with the family members left in the home country. They also provide a view of how one family experienced life in the Soviet Union from 1921 to 1982.
This fonds consists of diaries and other materials which provide details on everyday life, current events and business dealings. Tucked into some of the diaries are advertisements, notices, lottery tickets and other day-to-day notes. The diaries for 1907 and 1918 are missing. The diary for 1919 is incomplete and obviously written under difficult conditions on different notepads and scraps of paper. There is also a small notebook with calculations written in pencil.
This fonds contains information on the founding of a radio station in Altona, Manitoba, an autobiography of A.J. Thiessen, a portrait of Thiessen and a photo of his first bus. Much of the material documents Thiessen's community involvements.
This fonds consists of diaries and other documents which primarily document the life of Adina Janzen (nee Epp). It includes diaries covering 1940-1943 while she attended school in Kiev. Further diaries cover the period from 1943-1947 when Mennonites fled from Russia into Germany and their migration to Paraguay. These entries document her thoughts, feelings, and emotions during the migration. There are legal records pertaining to her birth and citizenship and family genealogical records compiled at various time which provide family background in Russia. The materials also cover the period after she immigrated to Canada.
This fonds consists of minutes from meetings, financial records, correspondence, photographs, insurance and employee records, reports, projects and proposals. The two artifacts consist of :
the corporation seal -treasurer's "for deposit only..." stamp
This fonds consists of materials regarding the life and work of Dr. Elmer Edger Ernest Reimer [“Al Reimer"], a scholar, a professor in the English Department of United College—the University of Winnipeg, a novelist, a writer of short stories and many articles, an historian, a stalwart Mennonite, a traveller, very involved in the Arts, and devoted to his family. The fonds is divided into eleven series:
Personal: early years and family, most correspondence, and the later years
Student days
University-teaching years
Low-German: the language, works, and writers
Research for Writing his Novel My Harp is Turned to Mourning and for his collection of short stories, Kleindarp
Drafts of Al Reimer’s novel My Harp is Turned to Mourning (1985)
Al Reimer’s transcription, editing, and translations work with A Russian Dance of Death (1977), No Strangers in Exile (1979), and Arnold Dyck’s works (1989)
Literature
Interest and Involvement in the Arts other than Literature
Al Reimer as a Leader of Tours to Europe and Russia (USSR)
This fonds contains a composite photograph consisting of 167 individual portraits of Mennonite men that served in the Imperial Russia's Forestry service at Razin, a photograph of teacher Heinrich Johan Dueck (1862-1922) with students of school(Dueck was a teacher in Kleefeld, Gnadental and Klippenstal, Molotschna), and a 1903 funeral photo of 18 year-old Heinrich Albrecht of Prangenau (South Russia) showing the coffin being transported with a horse drawn carriage. This fonds also includes background information on the Razin Forestei where members of the Warkentin and Albrecht family served plus genealogical information on the Albrecht, Peters, von Kampen, and Warkentin families. Some of the data is an update for the published family history book entitled, "John Warkentin and his Descendants 1820-1990".
This fonds consists of correspondence, much of it with Charlotte Sauer, regarding the translation and publication of the translation of Eric Sauer's "Das Morgenbrot der Welterloesunge", manuscripts of the Eric Sauer translation, sermon notes and various Russian periodicals, evangelical tracts, and catalogues of Russia religious material.